Click on the headline (link) for the full text.
Many more articles are available through the Energy Bulletin homepage
Venezuela to sell cheap oil to U.S. poor
Associated Press via Washington Post
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela will soon begin selling heating oil at discount prices to poor communities in Boston and New York, following up on a promise by President Hugo Chavez, Venezuela’s state oil company announced.
Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company that runs roughly 16,000 gas stations in the United States, will offer fuel at discounted rates in Boston as early as next week, according to a statement posted Friday on the company’s Web site.
(18 November 2005)
Also posted at CBS News.
First mention of this in August.
Qatar, US launch huge LNG project in strategic alliance
AFP via Yahoo!News
DOHA (AFP) – Qatar and Washington have launched a joint project to build the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) refinery mostly for export to the United States, in a 14-billion-dollar strategic alliance between the two countries.
(18 November 2005)
Review of oil movie Syriana
Killers rendered in shades of gray
Rachel Abramowitz, LA Times
*In untangling the roots of Middle Eastern terrorism, two ambitious fall releases find that the heroes and the villains aren’t always easy to discern
————-
…Gaghan’s film, which he also directed, is a far-reaching examination of what he calls the drug of the 20th century: oil. Structured like “Traffic,” with overlapping story lines, it examines the corrosive and corrupting impact of the search for black gold — from oilmen in Texas to lobbyists and lawyers in Washington, oil traders in Geneva, corrupt and progressive sheiks, CIA agents, disenfranchised Pakistani oil workers, suicide bombers.
…NOT long after Sept. 11, Gaghan found his guide into the world of Middle Eastern politics: Robert Baer, a former CIA agent whose book “See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism” inspired Clooney’s character in the film, that of an increasingly disillusioned CIA officer. Gaghan and Baer ultimately spent six weeks traveling together, from the luxury mansions that Middle Eastern oil barons and arms magnates maintain in the South of France to Syria and Lebanon, where they met numerous sources — among them tribal leaders, the leaders of Hezbollah, the Lebanese minister of culture and the Syrian oil minister. Gaghan took copious notes in college-ruled notebooks.
(30 October 2005)
More in the Village Voice:
‘Reagan’ Attacks Netanyahu: Director Stephen Gaghan talks about what didn’t end up in ‘Syriana’.
Opec set to lift secrecy about oil production
Carola Hoyos, Financial Times
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, the cartel that controls 40 per cent of world oil exports, will on Saturday lift a four-decade veil of secrecy and begin regularly to reveal how much oil it is actually pumping.
China and India, the fastest growing major oil consumers, will also supply consumption and storage data for the first time.
The Joint Oil Data Initiative (Jodi), which will be launched on Saturday in Riyadh by energy and finance ministers of the biggest oil producing and consuming countries, will meet a persistent demand of the Group of seven industrialised countries for more transparent energy data.
…But analysts also suggested that the new database was unlikely to transform the currently unscientific art of guessing world demand and supply into a simple task.
…Traders said they would have to wait until the numbers came out to know whether they would move the oil price when markets reopen on Monday.
(18 November 2005)
Comments at The Oil Drum (A new data base appears) and by Jerome a Paris (Countdown to 100$ oil (16) – We’ll know on Monday).
Big Oil’s greed exacts an awful toll for profits
Terry Doran, The News-Sentinel
Exxon Mobil reported for the quarter just ended a record profit of $10 billion. That’s profit, not income, and a record for the United States. National Public Radio reports “. . . as a result of supply disruptions caused by recent hurricanes, Exxon is receiving sky-high prices for both crude oil and gasoline . . . ” In plain English, Exxon Mobil is making a fortune off human misery.
…Thirty-seven million is the number of Americans living in poverty. Almost 10 million is the number of children living in poverty. One is the number of human beings I know who are outraged by these figures. That would be me. Actually, there are many others, such as my brother, Chris.
Three years ago, with the help of others and with little funding, he organized the “Festival of Resistance” in Dallas, the home of Exxon Mobil. The object was to protest the policies and values of this corporation.
(18 November, 2005)
Pacific islands scramble to cushion skyrocketing world fuel prices
Samisoni Pareti, Islands Business
Between the options of travelling around in canoes and enjoying electricity powered by waves, the spiralling hike in oil prices is forcing islands of the Pacific back to the drawing board. For these islands economies, a number of them small and dependent on diesel power generators, plans for renewable energy are being re-visited as the effect of oil prices begins to bite real hard.
While solar power, windmills and hydro-electricity may be feasible in the medium to long-term, islands nations are desperately looking for some immediate relief that can cushion the impact of rising oil bill.
Niue, for instance, testifies to this vulnerability. In May and June, its wholesale price of petrol was a little over US$1 per litre. Wholesale price of diesel was no better, being sold at just under US$1 a litre. For the same period, the average wholesale price of petrol in the Pacific hovered around US0.54 cents and diesel at US0.56 cents a litre.
Indeed by its calculations, the Investment and Trade division of the Suva-based Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat estimates that the recent price hikes have meant an additional shift of around US$120 million out of the Pacific islands economies each year.
Simply put, we pay a lot more than we did before and this is of significant concern not only to major consumers but governments alike.
(no date – November 2005?)
In-depth look at the energy problems of the Pacific Islands.
Saudi Arabia asks for “road map” of oil demand
Ghaida Ghantous and Simon Webb, Reuters
RIYADH (Reuters) – Oil giant Saudi Arabia asked consuming nations for a “road map” of future oil demand on Saturday in response to repeated calls for Riyadh to ramp up its production capacity and curb record prices.
Oil minister Ali al-Naimi, speaking after a day of talks between global consumer and producer nations, said his country is spending $50 billion to raise output capacity but wants a clearer picture of where the extra production is needed.
Producers are seeking “a road map for demand in consuming nations,” Naimi said. “As producers we do not want to build the facilities which will not be met by demand.”
His comments turn the tables on Western nations who have called for greater transparency from oil producers and higher output to rein in prices, which hit a record $70 a barrel in August. They have since fallen to about $56.
(19 November 2005)
